Load-handling device



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' N. T. HARRINGTON LOAD HANDLING DEVICE Aug. 18, 1925 J I N. 'r. HARRINGTON LOAD HANDLING DEVICE F1104 Nov. 14. 1921 3 Sheets-Shout 5 Patented Aug. 18, 1925.

UNITED STATES NORMAN T. HARRINGTON, or CLEVELAND, OHIO.

LOAD-HANDLING DEVICE.

Application filed November 14, 1921. Serial No. 515,088.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, NORMAN T. Hannma TON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Cleveland, in the county of Guyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Load- Handling Devices, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to load handling devices and more particularly to fall carriers in connection with extended cableways.

When the span of a cableway exceeds certain limits, the fall of a line operatively connected with the carriage or a load carried thereby, such as a hoisting line, dumping line, holding line or closing line respectively, has, as is commonly known a sag which increases with the distance of the carriage from one or the other anchoring point of the cable.

In the past various forms of fall carriers for supporting the fall of such lines intermediate the anchoring points and the carriage have been evolved, but experience has shown that such carrier mechanisms have certain practical disadvantages.

It is a general object of the invention to provide fall carrier mechanism which is simple in construction and operation.

Another more particular object is to provide mechanism of this character which is positive and reliable in its action in contradistinction to constructions of the prior art in which the normal position of a carrier relatively to the carriage or the positions of a plurality of carriers relatively to each other and to the carriage are frequently subject to variations.

Other objects will appear more fully from the specification in connection with the accompanying drawings in which- Fig. 1 is a schematic view in elevation of a load handling cable way system embodying the invention;

Fig. 2 is a similar view showing another mode of applying the invention;

Figs. 3 and 4 are views similar to Figs. 1 and 2 respectively showing the two forms applied to di'lfercnt systems of reeving the bucket;

Fig. 5 is a schematic representation of another form of fall carrier arrangement embodying the invention;

Fig. 6 is a sectional View on line 66, Fig. 5;

Fig. 7 is a side View of one of the fall carriers shown in Figs. 2, 4 and 5; and

Fig. 8 is an end view thereof.

In Figs. 1 and 2 the invention is shown as applied to the so-called American system of reeving the bucket while in Figs. 3 and 4 the invention is shown as applied to the so-called English system of reeving.

For the purpose of illustration thecable way 1 is shown as anchored to the top of two towers 2 and 3. The carriage 4 is operated by the usual travel line 5' which runs from one side of the carriage over a sheave 6 on the tower 3 to and over a sheave 7 on the tower 2, then over the drum or wheel 8 and then back over a sheave 9 near the sheave 7 to the other side of the carriage.

The closing line 10 runs from a point of attachment 11 on the carriage over sheaves 12 and 13 on the bucket, then over a sheave 14 on the carriage, over a sheave 15 on the tower 2 to the closing drum 16. The holding line runs from a point of attachment 17 on the carriage over a sheave 18 on the bucket, over a sheave 19 on the carriage, over a sheave 20 on the tower 2 to the holdingline drum 21.

The detail thus far described represents a well known construction and is described merely for the sake of facilitating the understanding of the invention proper.

It will be observed that the fall need be supported only between the carriage and tower 2, since it extends only from this tower to the carriage.

The carriage sheaves 22 and 23 which travel on the cable line carry each a smaller sheave 24 and 25 respectively, which are driven by sheaves 22 and 23 through friction plates. F ijg. 1 represents a cableway having a comparatively short span which is assumed to necessitate only a single support 26, so that when the carriage has moved to the tower 3 the support 26 is sufiicient to hold up the fall. It is, of course, most advantageous to move the support 26 to the center of the cable way when the carriage is in its extreme position to the left. It is understood that the support must be close up against tower 2 when the carriage is in its extreme right position. Therefore it is necessary to move the sup port approximately at one half the speed of the carriage speed.

This is easily attained by making the sheaves 24 and 25 approximately one half the diameter of the sheaves 22 and 23 and cause them to move over an independent line 27. This line 27 is an endless cable of small diameter passing over the sheaves 24 and 25 and over sheaves 28 and 29 ca 'ried by the two towers 2 and 3 respectively. The cable makes a complete loop about the sheaves 24; and 25 and then passes in opposite directions to the sheaves 28 and 29. Since the diameters of the sheaves 22, 23 and 24, 25 are in the ratio of 2:1, the auxiliary line 27 will move at half the speed of the travel line 5. The support or carrier 26 which is attached to the line 27 or, as indicated, forms link in it, moves at one half the speed of the carriage and is supported on the main cable 1 by means of rollers 26 If due to slip of the auxiliary line 27 relatively to the travel line 5 the support 26 should change its normal position and move closer to the carriage, it is merely necessary to run the carriage to its extreme right end-so that the carriage will take the support 26 along, causing the auxiliary line 27 to slip in the opposite direction. Should the support move from its normal position away from the carriage, movement of the carriage to the extreme right end will again cause an adjustment. In that case the support 26 will be held at the sheave 28 causing a slipping of the line 27 in its friction coupling with the sheaves 22 and 23.

The construction shown in Fig. 2 is generally similar to that shown in Fig. 1. The differential movement of the fall carriers is not brought about by sheaves mounted on the carriage, but by sheaves mounted on the support or carrier.

Incidentally the arrangement represents a long span cable way necessitating three fall carriers. As indicated more clearly in Figs. 7 and 8 each of the carriers 33, 34 and 35 is mounted a differential motion unit comprising a sheave in a loop of the upper flight of the auxiliary line 31, a sheave in a loop of the lower flight of the line 31 and reduction gearing from the upper to the lower sheave. As will be explained more fully the gearing ratio between the innermost unit comprising the sheaves 36 and 37 is approximately 7 :1, that of the middle unit comprising the sheaves 38 and 39 is about 3:1, and that of the outer unit comprising the sheaves lO, L1 is about 5 :3.

Since the carriers should move at the rate 7 and A of the speed of the carriage and therefore of the auxiliary line 31 in order to uniformly divide the distai-lee between the carriage and the left anchoring 1 "T23. must make revolutions, 61 being the diameter of the sheave. It is also clear that at the same time the sheave 36 must make X+ ZX= Y a? revolutions. making the proper rate of motion of the carrier possible must thus be i. e. the sheave 36 must revolve 7 times faster than the sheave 37.

For the carrier 3a,

The gear ratio the sheave 39 must make at the same time dqr revolutions while 1 lv-A t-ne sheave 38 must make revolutions.

The gear ratio for the sheaves 38 and 39 must be Similarly the gear ratio for the sheaves no and ll must be If in the course of time one or the other of the carriers should change its normal position in the auxiliary line, movement of the carriage to the right hand end of the cableway will readjust the relative positions due to slip of friction drive plate forming the connection between the differential sheaves 22, 23 and 2a, 25. Other lengths of cableway requiring more or fewer fall carriers or supports would have different gear ratios than those above referred to, as is obvious.

In applying the invention to cableway constructions using the English system of reeving the bucket, carriers must be pro-- vided on both sides of the carriage, as is obvious. in the English system of reeving, as is well known, the holding line is attached to one tower (tower 3), then passes over a sheave (17 and over sheaves 18, etc. to the holding line drum 21 as in the American system described in connection with Figs. 1 and 2. The closing line is similarlyattached tpiower 3, then passes over a sheave 11, over sheave 12 etc. to the closing line drum 16. Figs. 3 and 4 which show such application are otherwise similar to Figs. 1 and 2 respectively.

In Fig. 3 the carrier 43 on the left side of the carriage 4a and the carrier 4-5 on the right side are each moved at one half of the speed of the independent line 46 and thus evenly divide the respective distances between the carriage and the two towers or other supports.

In Fig i the carriers 17, 48 and 4:9 to the left of the carriage 50 and the carriers 51, 52 and 53 evenly divide the respective distances between the carriage 50 and the towers.

While I have shown only two arrangements for carrying out .the object of the invention, it is of course possible to devise other specific arrangements.

While for the sake of simplicity I prefer to operate the independent line from the carriage in either of the two ways indicated in Figs. 1 and 2, it is of course possible to operate it from any other point of the mechanism effecting the movement of the car riage. It is thus possible to operate the auxiliary line either from the shaft carrying the drum for the travel line of the carriage or from an. auxiliary drum driven by the travel line of the carriage. The expression operatively connected with the carriage must therefore be understood in the broadest sense including any indirect connection.

WVhile I have separately described two constructions including an independent line for movinga carrier or carriers, it may be found advantageous to combine both constructions as shown in Fig. 5.

The separate line 60 is passed around sheaves 61 and 62 which are frictionally coupled by disks 63 to sheaves 68 and 64: as indicated in Fig. 6. Fall carrier 65 is directly connected to the line 60 and has its speed. Fall carriers 66, 67 and 68, however, have upper sheaves 69 and lower sheaves 70 in bights of the upper and lower flight, respectively, of line 60 and the relative motion of these fall carriers is determined by suitable gearing described in connection with Figs. 2 and 4. Inasmuch, however, as the line 60 has a speed smaller than the speed of the carriage 71, the rate of reduction may be smaller than if the line 60 were directly connected to the carriage as in Figs. 2 and 4.

The functional significance of the constructions described lies primarily in the fact that the independent line or cable may be of small diameter since the power necessary for hauling the carriers is inherently small. This small line can be readily car ried around a 6 sheave or even a 5 sheave without injury to the line. In this manner the frictional contact established between the line and the carriers defines a positive connection which practically precludes the possibility of slipping and the necessity of frequent readjustments is eliminated. However, any slight derangement which is bound to occur some time in any mechanism of this character, may be easily adjusted in the manner indicated and is in fact more or less self-adjusting through friction drive connections referred to. Each driving sheave is preferably provided with a friction plate which is set tight enough to' drive the fall carriers under normal conditions but will slip if the carriers after displacement are taken to the end of the line by the carriage. Suitable buffers may be provided on the main cable, the fall carriers and the carriage to facilitate the adjustment.

Another substantial advantage of the arrangements described is that the sheaves of the fall carriers and the sheaves 22 and 23 may be verylight. It is well known engineering practice that a cable should not bend around a sheave less than twenty four times the cable diameter. Since the size of the sheaves and their supports are proportional to the diameter of the operating cable, the weight must likewise be proportional and with a cable of minimum size the mass and weight of the carriers must be a minimum. The rate of energy consumption, and of wear and tear as well as the first investment, so far as the fall carrier arrangement is concerned, are a minimum.

I claim:

1. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on said cableway, a travel line for moving the carriage, of a fall carrier, and means for moving the fall carrier comprising a separate rope having flights running in opposite directions between the ends of the cableway and means for moving the rope at a predetermined speed relatively to the speed of the carriage.

2. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on the cableway, a travel line for moving the carriage, of a fall carrier and means for moving the fall carrier, comprising a separate rope operatively connected with the carriage and having flights running in opposite directions between the ends of the cableway.

3. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on the cableway, a travel line for moving the carriage, of a fall carrier and means for moving the fall carrier, comprising a separate'rope having flights running in opposite directions between the ends of the cableway and means for moving the rope at a rate lower than the rate of movement of the carriage.

4. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on said cableway, a travel line for moving the carriage, of a separate rope having flights running in opposits directions between the ends of the cable way, means for moving the rope at a predetermined speed, a fall carrier and means for operatively connecting the carrier with the rope, said connecting means comprising a sheave in a bight of one flight of the rope, a sheave in a bight of the other flight of the rope and gear mechanism between thesheaves for causing the carrier to travel at a predetermined rate of speed relatively to the speed of the rope.

5. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on said :cableway, a travel line for moving the carriage, of a separate rope having flights running in opposite directions between the ends of the cableway, means for moving the rope at a predetermined speed, a plurality of fall carriers and means for operatively connecting the carriers with the rope, said connecting means comprising a sheave on each carrier in a bight of one flight of the rope, a sheave on each carrier in a bight in the other flight of the rope and gear mechanism on each carrier between two'sheaves respectively, the different gearmechanisins beingsuch as to cause thecarriers to move at different rates of speed relatively to each other and to the speed of the rope.

6. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on said cableway, a plurality of fall carriers and a travel line for moving the carriers at different rates, comprising a separate rope having flights running in opposite directions between the ends of the cableway, means for moving the rope and mechanisms for operatively connecting the carriers to the rope, said mechanisms including each a sheave in a bight in one flight of the rope, a sheave in a bight in the other flight of the rope and gear-mechanism between the respective sheaves.

7. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on the ca'bleway and a travel line for moving the carriage, of a fall carrier and means for moving the fall carrier, comprising a separate rope having flights running in opposite directions between the ends of the cableway and meansoperatively connected with the carriage for moving the rope at a speed different from that of the carriage.

S. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage having wheels running on the cableway and a travel line for moving the carriage, of a fall carrier and means for moving the "fall carrier, comprising a separate rope having flights running in opposite directions between the ends of the cableway, and sheaves smaller than the wheels on the carriage and frictionally coupled therewith, the sheaves moving in bights of the rope.

9. In devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on said cablewa-y, a travel line for moving the carriage, an independent line having flights running in opposite directions between theends of the cableway, means operatively connected with the carriage formoving the said line at a speed less'than that of the carriage, a plurality of fall carriers, one of said carriers being secured to the line to move at the speed of the latter, a sheave on each of the other carriers moving in a bight of one flight of the line, a sheave on each of the other carriers moving in a bight in the other flight of the line and gearing between the sheavcs on eachcarrier for causing the carriers to move at diiierent rates of speed relatively to the line.

10. in devices of the character described, the combination with a cableway, a carriage on the cableway, a pluralityof fall carriers and means for moving the all carriers at diflerent speed relatively to each other and to the carriage, said means comprising an independent line having an upper and a lower flight running in opposite directions between the ends of the cableway, means for moving the said line at a speed less than that of the carriage, sheaves on some of the carriers moving in bights of the said upper and lower flight respectively and gearing between a sheave in the upper flight and a sheave in the lower flight respectively.

11. A fall rope carrier including in combination two supporting cable traverse wheels rotatably mounted in flxed relation to each other for engaging the vupper side of a supporting cable, two wheels at least one of which is in operative relation with one of said traverse wheels, and a line forming a bight surrounding said we last named wheels and in operative relation thereto.

12. A fall rope carrier including in com bination two supporting cable traverse wheels rotatably mounted in fined relation to each other for engaging the upper side of a supporting cable, a wheel rotatably mounted in operative relation to each of said traverse wheels, each of said last named wheels being arranged and adapted for receiving a line wrapped around half its circumference, whereby the hauling movement of said line will cause said wheels to rotate, said rotation being transmitted to said traverse wheels.

13. A fall rope carrier includingin combination two supporting cable traverse wheels rotatably mounted in fixed relation to each other for engaging the upper side of a supporting cable, two wheels at least one of which is in operative relation to one of said traverse wheels, and a line forming a bight surrounding said two last named wheels and in operative relation thereto, that wheel in operative relation to its traverse wheel being of a different diameter than said traverse wheel.

14. A fall rope carrier including in combination two supporting cable :traversc wheels rotatably mounted in fixed relation to each other for engaging the upper side of a supporting cable, two wheels at least one of which is in operative relation to one of said traverse wheels and a line forming a bight surrounding said two last named wheels and in operative relation thereto each of said Wheels being of a differentdiameter than its coact-ing traverse wheel.

15. A fall rope carrier including in combination two supporting cable traverse wheels rotatably mounted in fixed relation to each other for engaging the upper side of a supporting cable, a wheel rotatably mounted in operative relation to each or" said traverse wheels, and a line forming a bight surrounding said two last named wheels and in operative relation thereto each of said wheels being of a different diameter than its coacting traverse wheel.

16. In devices of the character described the combination of a rope having flights running in opposite directions, a fall carrier including a sheave in a bight in one flight, a sheave in a bight in the other flight and gear ing between the two sheaves.

17. In devices of the character described, the combination with a main cable, a carriage and a traction line, of an independent line of smaller diameter than any of the other lines for moving fall rope carriers.

In testimony whereof, I aiiix my signature.

NORMAN T. HARRINGTON. 

